UPA generation

This year’s Focus section looks at the important international production company United Production of America. UPA was a revolutionary company founded towards the end of World War II by dissatisfied artists and animators from the Walt Disney Studios who were unwilling to submit to the company’s strict templates and avoidance of taboo subjects. The dispute culminated in a strike and their subsequent firing. In response, they established the small UPA studio, which promoted the technique of limited animation. The company’s innovations were soon recognized and adopted by other important studios. Our survey of UPA’s most important products was put together by the legendary Gene Deitch. This director and writer of animated films had his first breakthrough with UPA in the late ’40s and early ’50s, and is the creator, among others, of the character Foofle and the censored film Giants, which criticized conditions in socialist Czechoslovakia. Deitch will be joined by several other eminent guests for a panel discussion of UPA.